Here, now, the latest on this battlefront, this time from Cisco (CSCO). The Internet Business Development unit of Cisco has released a survey splitting 1,243 individual respondents, each with over $500,000 in investable assets, into those over age 55 and those younger than 55. Respondents were spread out across the U.S., U.K., and Germany.

The findings consistently reflected a discrepancy in attitudes toward wealth management firms, for investors under age 55 and the older respondents. Advisors, take heed: younger clients are willing to move around assets of $3.5 trillion in North America alone to the wealth managers who offer good financial advice with more tech-savvy offerings like video conferencing. At stake: some $31 billion in potential wealth management fees.

But this younger crowd is not the easiest group of clients to deal with: Only 25% of the under 55 respondents were completely satisfied with their interactions with financial advisors; in comparison, 56% of the older set was satisfied with their wealth advisors. Among the younger crowd, 20% reported they had plans to change their primary advisor in the following 12 months.

"Part of the problem is that wealthy under-55s, who have a financial adviser, say their interactions are not valuable enough," said the authors of the report. Furthermore, there's evidence that these younger investors "doubt the fundamental value proposition that financial advisers provide." In the U.S., only 29% of under 55s said they trust investment advice from professional financial advisors more than the advice they receive from fellow investors. Almost as many, 27%, say they trust the advice of fellow investors even more than that of their financial advisors.

Cisco, with its own businesses to build, not surprisingly argues that integrating more advanced technology into a wealth management firm's offerings is part of the answer to building loyalty among these younger clients - or to scoop up new ones.

Sixty-one percent of the younger demographic wanted, for example, at least the option of having video meetings with their advisors. Apparently, they're also willing to move assets to firms that provide these services: 57% in the United States, 54% in Germany, and 51% in the United Kingdom. The survey further probed attitudes about "using two-way, high-definition video" to rope in other professionals – such as accountants and trust lawyers – during wealth management discussions. More than half, 53%, of the under 55 group was at least "somewhat interested." The figure dropped to 29% for those age 55 to 64, and 26% for those over 65.

Cisco's survey is quite self-serving, of course, but it also addresses, through technology, a genuine underlying need: top problems facing the wealthy under 55s, as they saw it, was "too few personalized interactions" and the "lack of an overall investment strategy."

So the driving idea behind Cisco's pitch is that with more video portals available, the investor and advisor can more easily coordinate investment strategies with specialists from other offices, so that a client looking to invest in Brazil, say, could use video technology to speak directly with a tax expert in Sao Paulo from the primary adviser's own office.

Penta's take: If the video technology can genuinely get you, the client, more relevant on the ground advice that will lead to better investment decisions, then the fees you will have to pay for this new technology will probably be worth it. But that's a pretty big if.

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